Politicians and Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike harass builders, admits mayor

BANGALORE: We've known it all along. Now, the first citizen has said at a public forum - politicians and BBMP are harassing builders.
Addressing builders and members of the Confederation of Real Estate Developers' Associations of India (Credai) at a meeting organized by the BBMP, mayor D Venkatesh Murthy's statement not only embarrassed BBMP officials present at the meeting but the builders too.He quickly told the builders: "Avoid violations during construction. If you go by the rule book, no officer or politician can harass you."
BBMP commissioner MK Shankarlinge Gowda said, "Some engineers in BBMP's town planning section have come to the position through influence they wield and they'll be transferred to manage storm water drains or solid waste."
Representatives from major builders such as Sobha Developers, Chartered Housing, Adarsh Group, Prestige, Mantri, among others, raised several issues. "Due to BBMP delaying plan sanction approval, the project cost gets escalated. Without approval, we can't raise loans from financial institutions. The worst affected are buyers. There should be a time-frame for plan approvals," said A Balakrishna Hegde, managing director, Chartered Housing.
Shankarlinge Gowda asked builders submit applications online for easy clearance. Credai president R Nagaraj said the collection of improvement charges by BBMP levied on builders was not uniform and unreasonable. "We want to make Bangalore a slum-free city and can start with one locality," said Nagaraj.
The commissioner said: "What we need is support from builders to manage the city's infrastructure better." He asked builders to make it mandatory in their apartment complexes to separate waste at source. About improvement charges to be levied, he said the council meet in July last week will decide on it.
Solar Power
BM Jayeshankar, CMD, Adarsh Group, said, "Solar panels in high-rise apartment complexes can be used for streetlighting on the premises," he said. BBMP commissioner said he'd discuss this with Bescom MD P Manivannan.
The commissioner agreed to the request of the builders who want penalty charges to be called as 'occupancy certificate charges' to get tax exemption.
Sakala scheme
"Once the Urban Properties Ownership Registry comes into effect, the khatas will be linked to it, Now on, khata applications can be sought through Sakala," the commissioner said. So far, only issuance of khata extract was covered under Sakala scheme.
The commissioner and mayor asked builders to take care of BBMP's roads, parks and slums for maintenance. "Take up parks near your apartments and develop them," he said.